Ikarus S-49

The Ikarus S-49 was one of the first fighter aircraft produced in Yugoslavia after World War II by the Ikarus Aircraft factory. It was a conventional, low-wing cantilever monoplane with retractable tailwheel undercarriage and bore a strong resemblance to the Yakovlev Yak-9, although it was in fact a fresh design.

After the Resolution of Informbiro in 1948 and breakup with Soviet Union, Yugoslavia was forced to rely on its domestic military industry. The same constructors that built the Rogozarski IK-3 before the war, engineers Kosta Sivcev, Slobodan Zrnic and Svetozar Popovic, used existing technical documentation of IK-3 to construct a new fighter aircraft, the Ikarus S-49. The first prototype of the S-49A flew in the June 1949. The first operational aircraft were delivered to combat units at the beginning of 1950.

The S-49A was of mixed construction, with Soviet built VK-105 engines which were no longer available after 1948. Therefore, it was decided to produce a new version of aircraft powered by the similar French Hispano-Suiza 12Z-17 engine. Because of the bigger and heavier engine, the new aircraft had to be of all-metal construction with a much longer nose. While the aircraft was mainly built by Ikarus, the wings and tail were built by the SOKO factory in Mostar. The armament remained the same as with Ikarus S-49A and it consisted of one 20 mm Mauser MG-151/20 autocannon produced by Germany during World War 2 and two 12.7 mm Colt Browning machine guns. In addition, under wing racks for two 50 kg bombs or four 127 mm HVAR missiles were added.

At the beginning of 1952, the new fighter aircraft Ikarus S-49C was introduced into the units of Yugoslav Air Force. About 130 S-49C were produced during the 1950s and they remained in service until 1961.